UN: The shocking disaster of vanishing sea

[singular_me]

as if oceans had always remained at the same place

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By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer Jim Heintz, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 28 mins ago

NUKUS, Uzbekistan – The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the planet's most shocking environmental disasters, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday as he urged Central Asian leaders to step up efforts to solve the problem.

Once the world's fourth-largest lake, the sea has shrunk by 90 percent since the rivers that feed it were largely diverted in a Soviet project to boost cotton production in the arid region.

The shrunken sea has ruined the once-robust fishing economy and left fishing trawlers stranded in sandy wastelands, leaning over as if they dropped from the air. The sea's evaporation has left layers of highly salted sand, which winds can carry as far away as Scandinavia and Japan, and which plague local people with health troubles.

more
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100404/ap_on_re_as/as_un_central_asia

[techguy]

Ones this size should for a lifetime at least.

This was brought on by soviet waterway engineering.

As such, yes it is a tragedy... but one the russians should be dealing with, not the UN.

[Argentium]

Ones this size should for a lifetime at least.

This was brought on by soviet waterway engineering.

As such, yes it is a tragedy... but one the russians should be dealing with, not the UN.

Agreed. This was Khrushchev's idea to promote cotton farming, by diverting water input to the Aral Sea.

[Grog]

Water diversion has a lot of impacts. This is one example, an extreme one, and very harsh. 90% reduction in a huge water body is incredible. Even if water started to flow today, and the body refilled, the life in that sea would never recover. That would be like trying to repopulate buffalo in North America. And agreed with the above. Russia should be dealing with this, not the UN.

Wars are fought over some stupid stuff at times, but stealing (or diverting, depending on what side of the fight you are on) water is a completely valid one IMO.